WappenLite and its Flash-based user interface for novice learners

This paper presents WappenLite, a Web-based application framework aimed primarily at lightweight educational programming environments, with a Flash-based editor component designed for novice learners. Most existing Web-based educational programming environments, often designed for a single programming language, offer little room for customization. Our research group has developed a Web-based application framework for educational programming environments called Wappen. Wappen-based applications can be adapted for a variety of programming languages and support extensive customization by teachers via the Eclipse RCP (Rich Client Platform). However, Wappen-based applications have some deficiencies. In particular, they can be slow to start up because of their large size, and it is difficult for teachers to tailor user interfaces written using the SWT (Standard Widget Toolkit). WappenLite is more lightweight and can offer a richer user interface because it allows teachers to use HTML and Flash as the platform for writing user interfaces. This paper describes a Flash-based user interface that is designed for novice learners and implemented as a WappenLite-based application.